Chapter 3: Research Ethics

Ethics

branch of philosophy concerned with morality-what it means to behave morally and how people can achieve that goal; it can also refer to a set of principles and practices that provide moral guidance in a particular field

Was it Worth It? Milgram Experiment

study on obedience to authority; though considered one of the most important results in psychology, with implications for understanding events like he Holocaust or mistreatment of prisoners by U.S soldiers in Abu Ghraib, it came at severe psychological stress to the research participants, and would be considered unethical by today's standards despite the fact that Milgram went through extensive debriefing, after which most participants thought the research was valuable and were glad to have participated.

APA Ethics Code

APA's Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (APA Ethics Code) was published in 1953, and most recently revised in 2002; includes 150 specific ethical standards, much of the content concerns the clinical practice of psychology; most relevant part is Standard 8: Research and Publication

Putting Ethics into Practice

Ethical issues arise well before you begin to collect data and continue to arise through publication and beyond. Thus: - Know and accept your ethical responsibilities - identify and minimize risks (modify research design; employ prescreening procedure in which you identify and eliminate participants at high risk; take active steps to maintain confidentiality) -identify and minimize deception - weigh risks against benefits -create informed consent and debriefing procedures -follow through

Federal regulations distinguish research that poses three levels of risk

Exempt research: includes research on the effectiveness of normal educational activities, the use of standard psychological measures and surveys of a nonsensitive nature in way that maintains confidentiality, and research using existing data from public sources; it is called exempt because regulations do not apply to it Minimal risk research: exposes participants to risks that ate no greater than those encountered by healthy people in daily life or during routine physical or psychological examinations; this type of research can receive an expedited review by one member of the IRB or by a separate committee under the authority of the IRB that can only improve minimal risk research At-risk research: poses greater than minimal risk and must be reviewed by the IRB

Framework for thinking about research ethics

Four general moral principles that apply to scientific research: 1) weighing risks against benefits; scientific research in psychology can only be ethical if its risks are outweighed by its benefits; still, it is not necessarily easy to weight the risks of research against its benefits because the risks and benefits may not be directly comparable (ex. common for risks to be primarily to research participants with the benefits primarily for science and society (counter example is Milgram study) 2) acting responsibly and with integrity, which means carrying out their research in a thorough and competent manner, meeting professional obligations, and being truthful; is important because promotes trust, which is essential to all effective human relationships (important issue is the use of deception needed to carry out some research questions) (example where trust violated is with study linking MMR vaccine with autism) 3) seeking justice; must conduct research in just manner, treating participants fairly, for example, by giving them adequate compensation for their participation and making sure that benefits and risks are distributed evenly across all participants (counter example Tuskegee Syphilis Study) 4) respecting people's rights an dignity as human beings; element of this is respecting participant autonomy--their right to make their own choices and take their own actions free from coercion; linked to the importance of informed consent--means that researchers obtain and document people's agreement to participate in a study after having informed them of everything that might reasonably me expected to affect their decision (in neither the Milgram or Tuskegee studies did participants give true informed consent); another element of respecting rights and dignity is respecting privacy--their right to decide what info about them is shared with others. This mean researchers must maintain confidentiality, which is an agreement not to disclose participants' personal info without their consent or come appropriate legal authorization Three groups of people affected by scientific research: 1) research participants, 2) scientific community 3) society in general A thorough consideration of the ethics of any research project must take into account how each of the four moral principles applies to each of the three groups of people . Though may not be possible to eliminate ethical conflict completely, it is possible to deal with it in responsible and constructive ways, which means thoroughly and carefully thinking through ethical issues raised, minimizing risks, weighing risks against benefits, being able to explain one's ethical decisions to others, seeking feedback on them, and ultimately taking responsibility for them.

Belmont Report

In the U.S, in response to concerns about Tuskegee study and others, published in 1978 is a set of federal guidelines; explicitly recognized the principle of seeking justice, including the importance of conducting research in a way that distributes risks and benefits fairly across different groups at societal level Belmont Report became basis of a set of laws--the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects--that apply to research conducted, supported, or regulated by the federal government; according to these regulations, universities, hospitals, and other institutions that receive support from the federal government must establish an institutional review board (IRB) -- a committee that is responsible for reviewing research protocols for potential ethical problems IRB: consists of at least 5 members of varying backgrounds, different professions, scientists and nonscientists, mean and women, and at least on person not affiliated with the institution; group helps to ensure that risks of proposed research are minimized, benefits outweigh risks, research is carried out in a fair manner, and informed consent procedure is adequate

Standard 8: Research and Publication

Informed consent: not just having participants read and sign a consent form; it is good practice to tell participants about the risks and benefits, demonstrate the procedure, ask them if they have questions, and remind them of their right to withdraw at anytime in addition to having them read and sign the consent form; informed consent is not always necessary (these include situations in which the research is not expected to cause any harm and the procedure is straightforward or the study is conducted in the context of people's ordinary activities Deception of participants in psychological research can take a variety of forms: misinforming participants about the purpose of a study, using confederates, using phony equipment like Milgram's shock generator, and presenting participants with false feedback about their performance. Deception also includes not informing participants of the full design or true purpose of the research even if they are not actively misinformed. APA Ethics Code allows deception when the benefits of the study outweigh the risks, participants cannot reasonably be expected to be harmed, the research question cannot be answered without deception, participants are debriefed about the deception ASAP Debriefing, which is the process of informing research participants asap about the purpose of the study, revealing any deception, correcting any misconceptions they might have as a result of participating, and minimizing any harm that may have occurred For nonhuman animal subjects, APA conveys that it is ethically acceptable if benefits of research on nonhuman animals outweighs the cost. Still, researchers must use alternative methods if possible and if not possible, must acquire and care for their subjects humanely and minimize harm to them Scholarly integrity: researcher must not fabricate data or plagiarize. Plagiarism means using others' words or ideas without proper acknowledgment. Proper acknowledgment generally means indicating direct quotations with quotation marks and providing a citation to the source of any quotation or idea used. Researchers should not publish the same data a second time as though it were new, they should share their data with other researchers, and as peer reviewers they should keep the unpublished research they review confidential.

Confederate of the researcher

a helper who pretends to be a real participant

Declaration of Helsinki

created by World Medical Council in 1964; among the standards that is added to the Nuremberg Code was that research with human participants should be based on written protocol--a detailed description of the research--that is reviewed by an independent committee; revised several times, most recently in 2004

Nuremberg Code

one of earliest ethic code; set of 10 principles written in 1947 in conjunction with the trials of Nazi physicians accused of shockingly cruel research on concentration camp prisoners during World War II; the Nuremberg code provided a standard against which to compare the behavior of the men on trial and was particularly clear about the importance of carefully weighing the risks against the benefits and the need for informed consent